<p>My daughter is interested in exploring engineering/computer science, but also wants to take more liberal arts courses than can be accomodated by the need to meet engineering degree requirements in 4 years. Many colleges (Stanford, MIT, Rice, Brown etc) offer a 5-year dual BA and BS degree that can address this issue.</p>
<p>Do you know if she could do such a joint degree at Pomona and Harvey Mudd (i.e. she gets a BA at Pomona in say literature and a BS in engg at Mudd) over 5 years? I know that she could do a 3-2 program where she does 3 years at Claremont McKenna and 2 years at Mudd (and there are other 3-2 programs that Pomona has with Caltech/WashU), but she'd rather (1) be at Pomona for the non-engg portion than at Claremont McKenna, (2) do both degrees concurrently rather than sequentially and (2) be on one campus with her cohort for the program. It would seem that Pomona/Mudd would be an ideal place if she wanted to do such a program and still wanted to be in a smaller school environment - but I see no obvious mention of such a possibility on either school's website. It may be that it is possible but it's not common and hence not publicized (in fact when I checked the Pomona website there was reference in the student senate minutes to a Pomona student, Zamir, that did such a joint degree with Mudd a few years ago).</p>
<p>Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've also posted in the Pomona forum.</p>
<p>yes, I would say it is very possible to do that in 5 years. </p>
<p>Well, in order to get a degree at Mudd in 4 years, you have to take a total of 12 humanities classes, including a concentration in some sect of humanities. This concentration could almost equate to a minor, so an extra year to take an almost-minor to a full major in a humanities class is very possible. Planning on 5 years also gives you a bit more room to space out the engineering degree.</p>
<p>However, note that 5th year students are not offered financial aid, or so I believe. Being a supersenior for the school is problematic, since you take up a spot that could normally be offered to someone else.</p>
<p>One thing I wasn't clear enough on in my original post: when I asked whether such a dual degree was "possible", I meant to ask whether it was "allowed" by the 2 schools (as opposed to feasible to complete within 5 years). The issue you pointed out: that she would end up taking up a spot for an additional year - is one reason for the schools to possibly balk. And even if they allowed it, I wonder whether she'd possibly have to get accepted separately at both schools. </p>
<p>She'll call the schools at some point to check, but I was just curious if anyone knew of people who've done this or who were given an exception to do so.</p>
<p>You should definitely check out the official rules on this. I'm not certain you're allowed to voluntarily take an extra year, and I don't know anyone who has done it. Students spending longer than 8 semesters at Mudd usually have had some personal/health problems, failed classes, or changed their major too late to graduate on time.</p>
<p>Double majors are definitely possible in four years, although they are not as common as at other colleges. If you were to attend any of the Claremont Colleges, you would take some of your classes at the other colleges, and if you take enough, you can end up with an extra major. You just have to plan ahead to make sure your required classes fit and/or take more classes per semester.</p>
<p>Pomona offers a 3-2 engineering program. It's currently with Caltech, but I think in the past they have done it with Mudd and WashU. Not sure if that option is currently still there, but if you want to contact information for the program coordinator, PM me and I can get it to you.</p>
<p>I have a friend who was a physics major at Mudd and a philosophy humanities concentration (not sure what school). He entered Mudd intending to do physics and eventually shifted towards philosophy. He considered majoring in only philosophy, but found out that if he took a few more classes, he could keep his physics major as well. Now he is a senior, set to graduate with dual degrees. Again, I don't know what school his philosophy major came from, but it was one of other five colleges. The point is that it is possible to do a dual major of this nature in four years, but probably only for physics or math majors. It would be best to talk to both Mudd and Pomona to see if this is a possibility for other majors, where five years would likely be required.</p>
<p>Dadx2,
could you provide more information about double majoring at Harvey Mudd and CMC? The program sounds interesting. I wanted to major Engineering and English.</p>
<p>I am interested in how this would work, and skeptical, as well. This sounds like a way to "backdoor" into another school's program. What's to keep a student, who doesn't have the stats to get into Pomona, go to Pitzer, take a very easy major there, and then pursue something else at Pomona to get that Pomona degree? I realize that is not at all what the OP is suggesting, just curious...</p>
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I am interested in how this would work, and skeptical, as well. This sounds like a way to "backdoor" into another school's program. What's to keep a student, who doesn't have the stats to get into Pomona, go to Pitzer, take a very easy major there, and then pursue something else at Pomona to get that Pomona degree? I realize that is not at all what the OP is suggesting, just curious...
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<p>Generally speaking, a student could to to Pitzer and pursue a Pomona major even without pursuing a "very easy" Pitzer major. Off-campus majoring is allowed on most of the campuses, and is not particularly uncommon. Your hypothetical student would still graduate with a Pitzer degree and would still be subject to Pitzer's other academic requirements, but the major courses would be taken at Pomona (or whatever other school the student off-campus majored at). This would only be allowed if Pitzer didn't already offer a comparable program. </p>
<p>In theory, it would also be entirely possible for a student to attend HMC and get an on-campus engineering major and an off-campus literature major (to borrow the OP's example). Whether this would be possible in four years, I don't know enough about individual program demands to say. With clinic + thesis, it definitely wouldn't be a walk in the park, but I imagine that it's been done. As for a 5yr "3+2" type program, I don't believe that anything official is in place, but you could be correct that it's just unpublicized. Please consider sharing the schools' responses to this question :)</p>
<p>Thanks, Student625 -- that clarifies things--your major would be at the other school, but your degree still be from your own institution. I.e. degree would still be from Pitzer, even if the major is obtained from Pomona, hence no "backdoor".</p>
<p>Just to close this loop: the answer after speaking with both Mudd and Pomona admissions offices is that it's not possible to do this particular combo. You can do a 3-2 combo with Claremont and Mudd, and the 3-2s that Pomona has with WashU and Caltech, but not Pomona with Mudd. Too bad - not sure why they would not have this option possible when the others are (in fact, the Mudd adm office person was under the impression that you could do a dual degree with Mudd and all the other Claremont colleges except Pomona).</p>